1. Field of the Invention
This invention resides in the field of electroporation and electroporation chambers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electroporation, or electric pulse-driven transfection, is widely used for impregnating membranous structures, such as living biological cells, liposomes, and vesicles, with exogenous molecules. The liquid in which the structures is suspended is typically an aqueous solution of the exogenous species in a high-conductivity buffer. Normal saline is commonly used as the buffer since, in addition to offering relatively low resistance to an electric current, normal saline provides an environment that is favorable to the viability of most membranous structures. The transfection of multiple samples of membranous structure suspensions either simultaneously or in rapid succession by electroporation is known as “high-throughput electroporation,” a procedure that is useful in siRNA experiments, in research using cDNA libraries, and in numerous other manipulations of membranous structures that are practiced in biotechnology laboratories. In high-throughput electroporation, the samples undergo transfection in the wells of a multi-well plate that contains electrodes embedded in each well. One example of such an electroporation plate is sold by BTX Instrument Division, Harvard Apparatus, Inc. (Holliston, Mass., USA), and described in an International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2004/050866 A1, entitled “Large-Scale Electroporation Plates, Systems, and Methods of Use” (Genetronics, Inc., applicant; Gamelin, A., et al., inventors), published under the Patent Cooperation Treaty on Jun. 17, 2004. While various aspects of high-throughput electroporation can be automated, operator involvement and intervention are still needed, and hazards to the operator arise from the presence of an electric field and the possible exposure to live electric contacts. The handling of the liquid media in which the cells are suspended also entails a risk of sample loss, cross-sample contamination, or both.
These and other limitations and sources of operational inefficiency and risk to the operator are addressed by the present invention.